Berwickshire farmer chooses low disturbance Claydon option

Colin McGregor and his wife Jill farm 304 ha at Coldstream Mains in Berwickshire, together with an extra 3345 ha on contract with 14 other farms.

Colin constantly looks for new ways to improve yields and reduce establishment costs. With this in mind he decided to have a trial on his own farm of a mounted Claydon 4m Hybrid drill sowing spring barley. Half of the trial field was seeded with the Claydon drill and half by a different drill. When it came to harvest, the Claydon-drilled yield was an impressive half-ton per acre more, established at much lower cost and with far fewer weeds. Colin was convinced of the benefit, and in 2018 bought a trailed 6m Hybrid T6.

Hybrid T6 in action at Coldstream Mains.

Tony Culbertson is the operator on the farm, and is pleased with the major time savings that the T6 brings. He says that he easily covers 40 hectares per day and regularly hits nearly 50:

“The Claydon strip drill is very operator friendly and easy to set up. It is cleverly designed to be a simple and effective drill that covers the ground quickly with a one-pass approach. This simplifies the process and helps deliver significant reduction in establishment costs.”